An examination of cyberbullying among Zimbabwean female social media influencers

Abstract

With technology and online interactions increasingly shaping our lives, there is a need to comprehend how cyberbullying affects individuals in online spaces. The predominant focus of cyberbullying studies has been on students, yet this scourge affects all groups of people, including social media influencers. There is a knowledge gap in how cyberbullying affects social media influencers. The study borrows from cyberfeminism concept to examine forms of cyberbullying among Zimbabwean social media influencers. Thematic content analysis was used to analyse posts which were purposively extracted from three social media influences’ pages, namely, Ketty Masomera, Queen of Peace and Patricia Jack. The extracted posts were published between May 2023 and June 2024. The analysis reveals that the main forms of cyberbullying among the selected social media influencers are denigration, sexting, and flaming. The article argues that female social media influencers have become perpetrators of cyberbullying and toxicity and use their Facebook pages to reproduce patriarchal hegemony as demonstrated by consistent harassment of fellow female social media influencers. The study concludes that although the dominant literature portrays women as victims of cyberbullying from men, they are also perpetrators of bullying online, and this bullying happens to be directed at fellow women.